HMS Hurst Castle

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HMS Hurst Castle (K416) was one of 44 Template:Sclass2s built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in June 1944, she began escorting convoys in August and was sunk by a German U-boat the following month.

Design and description

The Castle-class corvette was a stretched version of the preceding Flower class, enlarged to improve seakeeping and to accommodate modern weapons. The ships displaced Template:Convert at standard load and Template:Convert at deep load. They had an overall length of Template:Convert, a beam of Template:Convert and a deep draught of Template:Convert. They were powered by a pair of triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by two Admiralty three-drum boilers. The engines developed a total of Template:Convert and gave a maximum speed of Template:Convert. The Castles carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of Template:Convert at Template:Convert. The ships' complement was 99 officers and ratings.

The Castle-class ships were equipped with a single [[QF 4 inch Mk XVI naval gun|QF Template:Convert Mk XVI gun]] forward, but their primary weapon was their single three-barrel Squid anti-submarine mortar. This was backed up by one depth charge rail and two throwers for 15 depth charges. The ships were fitted with two twin and a pair of single mounts for [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|Template:Convert Oerlikon]] light AA guns. Provision was made for a further four single mounts if needed. They were equipped with Type 145Q and Type 147B ASDIC sets to detect submarines by reflections from sound waves beamed into the water. A Type 277 search radar and a HF/DF radio direction finder rounded out the Castles' sensor suite.

Construction and career

Hurst Castle, the only ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered on 2 February 1943 from Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company and was laid down at their shipyard in Dundee on 6 August. She was launched on 23 February 1944 and was completed on 9 June. The ship sailed to the anti-submarine training base in Tobermory, Mull, HMS Western Isles, for working up. Hurst Castle was assigned to Escort Group B3 on 3 July and escorted Convoy OS 85/KMS 59 from Britain to Gibraltar on 2 August. The group escorted Convoy SL 167/MKS 58 from Gibraltar to the UK later that month.

On 30 August Hurst Castle and her sister ship Template:HMS departed Derry, Northern Ireland, to rendezvous with Force 33 the following day. After meeting up with the other ships, they were tasked to search for the Template:GS which had been spotted by a Royal Air Force Consolidated B-24 Liberator patrol aircraft on the morning of 1 September. At 08:25, Hurst Castle was struck port side aft by a torpedo fired by the submarine; the ship sank in six minutes at Template:Coord with the loss of 17 ratings. The escort destroyer Template:HMS rescued all 102 survivors.